Rinspeed E2: environmentally enhanced
February 26, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Swiss tuning house Rinspeed is well known for some pretty wild creations though its Fiat 500 Abarth SS based E2 concept – a name which reflects the car’s dual purpose – is set to combine fun to drive performance with an eco-friendly attitude.
Essentially the car is controlled by a dash-mounted dial which allows it to operate in two different modes.
Set the dial to ‘Commuting’ mode and the power is dialled back to just 44kW, even less than is under the bonnet of a regular Fiat 500, and returns 4.0-litres per 100km. Flick it over to ‘Highway’ mode and the E2 develops an impressive 120kW.
Surprisingly even in ‘Highway’ mode the E2 still manages 6.4L/100km.
Rinspeed said the car demonstrates how the tuning house is flexible in changing itself to meet new world consumer demand.
Unfortunately the car will not make it beyond concept stage, and it’s hard to say whether the vehicle presents any real production value, but it certainly proves what can be achieved with some intuitive lateral thinking.
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Now this is the best idea I have seen in a long time. This is a much better eco-friendly stop gap until hydrogen cars and their infrastructure are more readily available.
Much better than hybrid cars and their big dirty batteries.
Surely this concept can be applied on larger more practical cars. Like an XR6T that puts around town on 100kw until you feel like flicking the performance switch.
Although I would love an Abarth 500 like the one above, I’ll have mine with the blonde Swiss miss thanks.
So let me get this straight………….
Rinspeed are tuning Abarth tuned Fiat 500s = Tuned tuning house specials.
This is what all performance cars should have!!!…
Totally agreed Jimbo – being concept I guess eventually manufacuters will roll this out, or are they already with “Normal” and “sport” etc buttons on the dash. All this really needs is a reletively simple link to the engine management system.
I can just see with GPS and congestion charging it will be automatic switching with no choice in the future.